NAME

       patool - portable archive file manager

SYNOPSIS

        patool                                                                   [global-options]
       (list|test|extract|create|diff|search|repack|recompressfP|formats)       [command-options]
       <command-arguments>...

DESCRIPTION

       Various  archive  formats  can  be created, extracted, tested, listed, searched, repacked,
       recompressed and compared by patool. The advantage of patool is its simplicity in handling
       archive files without having to remember a myriad of programs and options.

       The  archive  format is determined by the file(1) program and as a fallback by the archive
       file extension.

       patool supports 7z (.7z, .cb7), ACE (.ace, .cba), ADF (.adf), ALZIP (.alz), APE (.ape), AR
       (.a),  ARC  (.arc), ARJ (.arj), BZIP2 (.bz2), CAB (.cab), COMPRESS (.Z), CPIO (.cpio), DEB
       (.deb), DMS (.dms), FLAC (.flac), GZIP (.gz), ISO (.iso), LRZIP (.lrz), LZH (.lha,  .lzh),
       LZIP  (.lz),  LZMA  (.lzma),  LZOP  (.lzo),  RPM (.rpm), RAR (.rar, .cbr), RZIP (.rz), SHN
       (.shn), TAR (.tar, .cbt), XZ (.xz), ZIP (.zip, .jar, .cbz), ZOO (.zoo)  and  ZPAQ  (.zpaq)
       archive formats.
       It  relies  on  helper applications to handle those archive formats (for example bzip2 for
       BZIP2 archives).

       The archive formats TAR, ZIP, BZIP2 and GZIP are supported natively  and  do  not  require
       helper applications to be installed.

EXAMPLES

         patool extract archive.zip otherarchive.rar
         patool --verbose test dist.tar.gz
         patool list package.deb
         patool --verbose create myfiles.zip file1.txt dir/
         patool diff release1.0.tar.xz release2.0.zip
         patool search "def urlopen" python-3.3.tar.gz
         patool repack linux-2.6.33.tar.gz linux-2.6.33.tar.bz2
         patool recompress images.zip

GLOBAL OPTIONS

       -v, --verbose
              Display  more  info  about  what  patool  does,  and  display  the output of helper
              applications. Can be given multiple times to increase the output even more.

       --non-interactive
              Try to prevent any interactive user input  (ie.  prompting  for  passwords  or  for
              overwriting  duplicate files). Use this option with care since overwriting files or
              ignoring password prompts could lead to unintended consequences.
              This only works for programs that allow preventing user  prompts.  Currently  those
              are arj, 7z and rar.

COMMANDS

       The following rules apply to all commands:

       •   Existing files are never overwritten.

       •   The original archive will never be removed.

       •   Files  outside  the  output  directory  will  never be created. This relies on archive
           program options to prevent  unpacking  of  files  with  an  absolute  path  name  (eg.
           --no-absolute-filenames for cpio(1)).

       The following commands are available.

   extract
       patool extract [--outdir directory] <archive>...

       Extract  files  from  given  archives. The original archives will never be removed and are
       left as is.

       --outdir directory
              Extract to the given output directory. Default is to extract to the current working
              directory.

       If  the archive contains exactly one file or directory, the archive contents are extracted
       directly to the output directory.  Else  the  files  are  extracted  in  a  newly  created
       subdirectory  of  the  output  directory.  The  new  directory  is named after the archive
       filename without the extension.
       This prevents cluttering the output directory with a  lot  of  files  from  the  extracted
       archive.

       All extracted files are ensured that they are readable by the current user.

   list
       patool list <archive>...

       List files in archives.

   create
       patool create <archive> <file-or-directory>...

       Create  an  archive from given files. All of the given files to add to the archive must be
       readable by the current user.  The format of the archive to create is  determined  by  the
       archive  file  extension. If the archive program has options to maximize file compression,
       patool uses those options.

   test
       patool test <archive>...

       Test the given archives. If the helper application does not support testing,  the  archive
       contents are listed instead.

   diff
       patool diff <archive1> <archive2>

       Show differences between two archives with the diff(1) program.  The diff options used are
       -urN.

   search
       patool search <pattern> <archive>

       Search in archive contents for given pattern using the grep(1) program.  The grep  options
       used  are  -r;  additional  options  can  be  supplied  with  the GREP_OPTIONS environment
       variable.

   repack
       patool repack <archive> <archive_new>

       Repackage archive to a different format. The target archive format is  determined  by  the
       file extension of archive_new.

   recompress
       patool recompress <archive>

       Recompress  archive  to  a  smaller  file  size. If the resulting file is not smaller, the
       archive is left unchanged.

   formats
       patool formats

       Show all supported archive formats (ie. which helper applications are available).

HELP OPTION

       Specifying the help option displays help for patool itself, or a command.
       For example:
         patool --help - display help for patool
         patool extract --help - display help for the extract command

SHELL ALIASES

       When running under a Unix shell the following aliases can be defined to save some typing:
         alias pl='patool list'
         alias px='patool extract'
         alias pc='patool create'
         alias pd='patool diff'

AUTHOR

       Bastian Kleineidam <bastian.kleineidam@web.de>

COPYRIGHT

       Copyright © 2010-2016 Bastian Kleineidam